Human Post-Conflict Behavior in the Aftermath of Commercial Robberies is Behaviorally Homologous to Consolation in Great Apes

• In Event: Crime Caught on Camera I

Abstract

Post-conflict affiliative actions of bystanders towards victims of aggression, often termed consolation, is widely studied amongst apes. Human consolation behavior, however, is much less studied. To our knowledge, this study provides the first observational analysis of human adult consolation in the context of violent aggression. Using CCTV footage of 22 nonfatal commercial robberies, behaviors and social characteristics were coded of 249 individuals (both victims and bystanders) in the immediate aftermath of the incidents. Consolation was measured by coding affiliative physical contact (e.g., touching and hugging) between two individuals, the provider and recipient of consolatory behavior. A gravity-type logit model was applied to examine the conditions under which individuals are lead to physically console robbery victims in distress. Our data show that consolation is a function of social closeness rather than physical proximity; that female bystanders are more likely to provide consolation than males; and that exposure to high levels of threat (and not gender of the victim) makes a person eligible for receiving consolation. These results provide additional but tentative evidence for homological patterns of consolation in humans and apes and raise interesting questions about the role of gender in consolation.

Authors

• Marie Rosenkrantz Lindegaard, Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR)

• Lasse Suonperä Liebst, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

• Wim Bernasco, NSCR

• Marie Bruvik Heinskou, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

• Richard Philpot, Exeter University, UK

• Mark Levine, University of Exeter, UK

• Peter Verbeek, University of Alabama at Birmingham